


Pants on Fire

by SonjaJade



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Childhood Memories, Gen, Pre-Series, Theft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 17:43:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8723107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: Ed takes something that belongs to Winry and it takes her tattling on him to get it back.





	

Al was lying on his belly, watching as ants crawled over the lollipop he’d dropped in the grass and not paying much attention to his brother and friend arguing just behind him.  No, those two were always bickering loudly- nothing entertaining in that.  Not as interesting as watching the line of ants surround the cherry red of the fallen sucker, anyways.  
  
“Ed, give it back!”  
  
“I dunno what you’re goin’ on about, I don’t _have_ what you’re lookin’ for!”  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, Al watched as Winry’s hands clenched tightly into fists and her foot stomped the ground.  “I saw you take it!”  
  
Al sighed.  “Brother, just give whatever it is back and stop pestering Winry,” he grumbled.  He wondered if ants argued among each other the way Ed and Winry did.  
  
“Whatever, Winry.  I don’t have whatever it is you think I have, so buzz off and leave me and Al alone!”  
  
Their friend shouted at them that she was going to tell their mother what Ed had done, and while Ed didn’t stop her, he did stop being so smug about his accused theft.  
  
He sat down next to Al watching Winry leave.  Once she was out of sight, he dug into his pocket and took out a handful of coins.  “C’mon, let’s go get more suckers!”  
  
Alphonse furrowed his brow.  “You stole money?”  
  
Ed looked offended.  “It’s just a little pocket change!  I dunno why she’s losin’ her damn mind over it- it’s not even a hundred cenz!”  
  
Al looked at the silver and copper coins in his big brother’s hand.  “I don’t want another sucker.”  
  
“But you dropped yours!  C’mon, we’ll just run up to the store real quick-”  
  
“Edward Elric!” their mother shouted from the top of the hill, looking down at them.  Winry was crying and pointing, and Ed’s face paled.  
  
“Shit,” he whispered.  
  
Al got to his feet, Ed standing just behind him, as if hiding there would protect him somehow.  Instead, Al jogged away to comfort Winry while their mother tended to Ed.  
  
“What’s in your hand?” she asked sternly.  
  
Ed’s eyes looked at anything but their mother’s face.  “Just some change.”  
  
Al watched his mom fold her arms across her chest.  “And where did you get it?”  
  
“I found it,” Ed mumbled.  
  
“No he didn’t!  He took it out of my _parents’_ jar!” Winry wailed.  Al patted her back as she scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her hands.  
  
Mom said nothing, simply held out her hand, indicating that Ed should give it to her immediately.  Al thought that was when his mother was scariest- when she’d gone silent.  
  
“It’s only seventy-three cenz,” Ed pouted as he thrust the coins at her.  “What’s she need such a tiny amount for!”  
  
“It wasn’t yours, and that’s reason enough to give it back,” their mother scolded.  She turned to Winry and handed her the money, patting her head and drying her eyes with her apron.  “You might want to move that jar up higher, sweetie.  I’m sorry about Ed’s sticky fingers.”  
  
For a moment, Ed stood glowering at his toes and their mother approached him.  “Aren’t you going to apologize?”   
  
Ed mumbled a barely audible “Sorry,” and Al listened as their mother reminded him that the jar he’d taken the coins out of belonged to the late Mr. and Mrs. Rockbell, and that the money inside was for Winry when she grew up, not the whims of a selfish little boy.  
  
“But Al dropped his sucker and I was gonna use it to buy him another one!  I wasn’t bein’ selfish!”  
  
“That may be, but the money still wasn’t yours to take.  I think it’s time for you to come home and go to your room and think about what you’ve done.”  
  
“But Mom!”  
  
“That’s enough, Ed.  Let’s go home.”  
  
“Damn it!” he groaned, kicking at the grass before their mother snatched him up by the arm.  
  
“That’s two glasses of milk at dinner, would you like three?”  
  
Ed immediately buttoned his lips at that, even after it was decided he also needed his mouth washed out with soap.  Their mother turned to Al and smiled.  “Dinner’s in about an hour, Alphonse.  Why don’t you go with Winry to put the money back where it belongs.”  
  
Al nodded and grabbed Winry’s hand, trailing along behind his mother and brother until eventually they went separate ways.  
  
“Sorry about Ed, Winry.”  
  
“He’s such a jerk!” she grumbled.  “I’m so glad you’re not much like him, Al.”  She gave his hand a squeeze and smiled at him.  
  
Al’s cheeks felt hot, but Winry was right.  Ed _was_ a jerk sometimes, and he was glad he wasn’t much like him either.


End file.
